Ferrari do not want fight with Pirelli

Ferrari team boss Maurizio Arrivabene says his team do not want to get involved in a ‘fight’ with tyre manufacturer Pirelli.

‘I don’t want to open any kind of fight.’ Arrivabene said after the weekend, with his comments discussing the spectacular tyre blow out suffered by Sebastian Vettel during the closing stages of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Ferrari rolled the dice and took the gamble on just how far they could push the Pirelli tyres at Spa, attempting to get Vettel to one-stop and complete 29 laps on one set of tyres, despite the demands of Spa.

They were the only team to attempt this route and it very nearly worked, with Vettel seemingly set for a podium finish.

But then, just as he exited Eau Rouge and entered the Kemmel straight, his right rear tyre exploded 195mph.

Unsurprisingly Vettel was not in a good mood after the race.

‘If it had happened 200 metres earlier I would not be standing here now,? Vettel was quoted by the Mirror.

?Just out of the blue it explodes. If this had happened earlier I?m ****ed?.

Vettel of course does have a legitimate case to question the safety, especially when Arrivabene highlights the point that each team have a Pirelli engineer within the team and that Vettel’s tyre strategy was one that was approved pre-race.

‘The strategy normally – even if aggressive – is based on clear data that you have, so you’re not so stupid or crazy to take a risk for the driver.

‘All the teams have an engineer from Pirelli and what do you think that engineer is doing? I mean, he’s not there to eat chewing gum; he’s there to check the tyres, to follow all that we are doing and to give the data to the team.’ he told Sky Sports.